picnic

Summer of 2005, August:

so I overheard that they need help for the Annual Birdseye Picnic benefitting the Birdseye Volunteer Fire Dept. I found the coordinator and explained who my grandmother is and that I'm staying here for a little bit and am willing to volunteer. MaryAnne pulled out the volunteer list and asked my preferences. I had no preferences and so she put me in the raffle ticket booth from 6-8 pm. I almost asked what the procedure would be because I know that when you take money and tickets at Unity in the Community festival back in Detroit, there is a system that involves serious checks and balances regardless of the who you are or know.

I decided to wait until I got to the festival.

I arrived early to buy a chicken dinner and check out the picnic a bit. There, I re-met MaryAnne and let her know I remembered that I was supposed to be there in an hour. After I walk away, I see that she is talking to Pam, who has known me as an acquaintance for 35 years though we have probably never exchanged more than 55 words in that time. I figure MaryAnne is getting a reference which is fine with me.

At 6 pm I arrive to find out what my task is, two other volunteers that I will take over for explain the job to me: Take the money that people give you and put it in this sack or the other. Everyonce in awhile, a guy who is roaming the crowd selling tickets will drop off his money. People can win money or a porch swing built by someone local.

I take over and find out that the raffle drawing is at 8 and I am the last person to man the table. I am the last person that will have thousands of dollars in front of me in a sack with nothing to account for the total except the other half of a ticket stub in a wire barrel. The roaming guy comes over, eyes me and says, "I hear we have someone from Chicago helping us out. Thanks." And then he dumped a couple hundred of dollars on the table.

The reference check had consisted of my word that I was who I said I was and someone's opinion that knew almost nothing about me.

I wanted to tell them: "This is crazy, this is naive. I could just take money and no one would know. Why don't you have a system. For your benefit and mine, should someone decide that I had taken something. You don't know what you're doing...."

I then realized this is how and why pointless bureaucracies are created.

Someone, someday, will come along and 'grow them up' by stealing a bunch of money and they will develop a system and.......